Ted Frandini, a harried Rockies fan, asked in an e-mail: “How can they do that?”

What they (Major League Baseball officials) did was eliminate Saturday’s key Rockies-Dodgers game from the FSN Rocky Mountain schedule.

As noted in Saturday’s Denver Post, MLB determines dates and time periods in which there are exclusive game broadcasts on national networks. Because the Rockies-Dodgers cable game coincided with the Fox Network’s national broadcast of the Padres-Cardinals contest in St. Louis, the Rockies game was dumped.

While this was the first time for a key Colorado blackout, similar situations have occurred in past years with teams involved in pennant or wild-card battles.

The decision, according to several other Rockies fans, was “stupid” and “brainless.” They felt such a blackout should not happen in this era of multiple broadcasting outlets.

Keep in mind that flexibility in televising national and regional sporting events will always be second behind financial contracts.

While overnight radio ratings are never available, it’s safe to predict KOA 850 AM had one of the largest Rockies audiences of the season Saturday, perhaps in several seasons.

And how many diehard fans utilized both TV and radio to follow the close National League West scramble?

I listened to KOA while watching the Padres beat St. Louis on Fox-31 (with sound muted, of course).

And this whetted my appetite for more baseball in the wild, wild NL West.

I viewed the Brewers edging the Giants on Saturday night during the MLB network’s live coverage from San Francisco.

The name game

Shannon Sharpe briefly addressed events surrounding his decision to return on CBS’ “NFL Today” at the start of Sunday’s show.

He reiterated earlier comments that initial claims by a woman who claimed the former Broncos star forced her to have sex with him “would never reach a court.”

The woman dropped her complaint late last week.

• Joel Klatt, former University of Colorado quarterback, continues to improve his craft as an FSN college football analyst. Klatt, working Saturday’s Oklahoma-Air Force game, showed major improvement over previous seasons.

• Eddie Robinson, the late, storied Grambling coach, is in the spotlight this month on Channel 8’s “Book Beat” series. The channel is airing the Denver Press Club interview with Denny Dressman, a former Rocky Mountain News sports editor, author of “Eddie Robinson: The Martin Luther King of Football.” The first of several air times: 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Ratings roulette.

The NFL’s kickoff weekend (Sept. 9-13), featuring games on NBC (two), ESPN (two), Fox and CBS, averaged 19.5 million viewers, the highest since 1987. The key was NBC, which aired two widely viewed contests in prime time. But the other networks also showed considerable audience growth when compared to past years.

Blackout blues

Sunday’s home NFL openers of the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders weren’t available to local TV viewers.

USA Today reported the two teams failed to sell out their stadiums 72 hours before kickoff.

Numerous NFL observers have predicted the 2010 season will set a record for blackouts, particularly late in the season for noncontending teams.

Last season, 12 of the 22 blackouts — a five-year high — came in the final seven weeks.

Detroit, St. Louis, Carolina and Arizona are among sites considered vulnerable to the blackout rule.

HBO shows mascots are no dummies

The Phillie Phanatic is featured, along with several other notable wacky, mischievous sports mascots, on an upcoming HBO special.

The 10-minute segment details how professional and college sports programs are utilizing entertainers in bizarre costumes to enhance the fan experience in arenas and at ballparks.

A highlight: an interview with former Phillie Phanatic David Raymond who, for 17 years, entertained and at times irritated fans and visiting players and coaches.

One fascinating scene: Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, angry because the Phillie Phanatic was mistreating a dummy that looked like him, running onto the field and trying to wrest the dummy from the mascot. The segment also visits a “mascot boot camp” to show training exercises.

It’s a good change-of-sports- pace for this entertaining and informative sports series.

Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.

WASHINGTON — Thirty games into the 82-game NHL season, and nearly six weeks after the Matt Duchene trade, Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic discussed the state of his team before Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at the Washington Capitals.